3/22/2012

Love in 160 Bites

(Note: I originally posted this over a year and a half ago, so I'm hoping that it will be new to most of you.)

Down at dVerse Poets Pub today, Gay Cannon invites us to play around with limericks. She even provides an excellent lesson on how to write one.

What follows is my first and only attempt at a limerick. You may find the punctuation or the rhythm a little wanting, but there's a reason (in addition to my lack of experience). I wrote it for Monkey Man's weekly 160 challenge, where the idea was to write something using only 160 characters, including spaces. I posted each of the stanzas, each 160 characters, over five weeks.

After (almost?) pulling off a limerick and meeting the 160 requirement to boot, I was pretty darned proud of myself, I'll tell you. I welcome this opportunity to share it with my friends down at the pub. Thanks, Gay.

Image source: Flickr

Photo by thierry llansades

Love in 160 Bites

There was this old dude from Duluth
A bit grozzled and long in the tooth
He looked in the mirror
And shuddered in horror
And thought: when did I lose all my youth?

The old guy decided to travel
Before all of his parts came unraveled
So off to the Keys he went
And he got a small cottage to rent
Then to the nude beach he ambled.

There came an old gal from Chicago
Who met the old boy in Key Largo.
On the beach they were nude
But neither were prudes
And their eyes had gone south a while ago.

Their attraction was quick and immense
In her eyes he was handsome and intense
So when he offered his arm
Plus all of his charm
She was smitten and had no defense.

They had a big summer wedding in Duluth
They’d fallen in love, that’s the truth
With no clothes and no shame
They took the same name
He got back his youth forsooth!

So much fun. Even funner as I know both locales. They won't be (well they might come to think of it as those Minnesotans are known to take dunks in icy waters) but I was going to say they won't be prancing nude on lake beaches in Duluth. But it's a clever piece you wrote here and it made me smile throughout. Well done!